Aliens making first contact.

[cosmocrazy]

If there is an advanced civilized alien race studying our world, maybe waiting for the right opportunity to make first contact how would they go about it?

For example: our world is currently divided into thousands of different countries & regions that are occupied by humans with thousands of different cultures, beliefs and languages. How do the aliens choose which culture to contact first: The most powerful? The most populated? The wealthiest? The most peaceful? The Healthiest? etc..

It seems to me that for humankind to be represented as civilized, then we need somehow to become united as a world culture. How could we achieve this without war and controversy, maintaining national culture but adapting to a universal world culture?

could it be done?
need it be done?

[eburacum45]

It does not seem sensible for an alien civilisation to refuse to make contact with another civilisation until it conforms to their preconceived expectations.

If the contactors have too many expectations, then the contactees may never fulfil them - and contact would therefore never be made.

We can't expect aliens to conform to our ideas of common sense- but neither should any alien civilisation expect other races to conform to theirs, or nobody will ever make contact.

[PraedSt]

Isn't there a school of thought that says we'll never truly be united, until we see aliens?

[marsbug]

I don't really understand that idea. Why should finding aliens unite us?

[PraedSt]

I suppose they mean that it would change the location of the line that we draw between 'us' and 'them'.

Cynical view: someone different to blame/hate/kill.

[Neverfly]

I don't really understand that idea. Why should finding aliens unite us?

Well, if they are like the ones in Independence Day ( Goofiest most ill informed movie ever) then they will wipe us all out- thus, uniting us.

[Vultur]

I assume the idea is that our own differences will be revealed as superficial once we meet a truly alien intelligence.

[Argos]

I for one am certain that faced with a truly alien intelligence weŽd seem identical to one another.

[Neverfly]

I assume the idea is that our own differences will be revealed as superficial once we meet a truly alien intelligence.

I remember watching 'Alien Nation' and thinking "Boy that's right...."

[Ara Pacis]

If life is rare, then perhaps they fear destroying us (for their own religious reasons) or fear the reactions of their own society if they publicize their discovery of us. If life is common, then perhaps there is a standardized protocol among civilizations that prohibits them from making contact until certain conditions are obtained.

Perhaps galactic manners demand not making contact until invited to do so. Thus, we might not ever meet aliens until we send out a contact protocol for potential contactors to follow, lest there be a dangerous misunderstanding. After all, it's generally considered to be poor form (among humans) to show up in someone's house uninvited, and if even one other alien society has a similar convention, then a previous misunderstanding and interstellar war might have made the survivors more cognizant of that potential custom.

[PraedSt]

If life is rare, then perhaps they fear destroying us (for their own religious reasons) or fear the reactions of their own society if they publicize their discovery of us. If life is common, then perhaps there is a standardized protocol among civilizations that prohibits them from making contact until certain conditions are obtained.

Perhaps galactic manners demand not making contact until invited to do so. Thus, we might not ever meet aliens until we send out a contact protocol for potential contactors to follow, lest there be a dangerous misunderstanding. After all, it's generally considered to be poor form (among humans) to show up in someone's house uninvited, and if even one other alien society has a similar convention, then a previous misunderstanding and interstellar war might have made the survivors more cognizant of that potential custom.

Good points and very well put. Thanks.

[timb]

Good points and very well put. Thanks.

Odd, I thought it was fantasy.

[PraedSt]

You know timb, I think your personality is scarily similar to your avatar's.

Joking aside, I particularly liked this bit:

If life is common, then perhaps there is a standardized protocol among civilizations that prohibits them from making contact until certain conditions are obtained.
Perhaps galactic manners demand not making contact until invited to do so. Thus, we might not ever meet aliens until we send out a contact protocol for potential contactors to follow, lest there be a dangerous misunderstanding. After all, it's generally considered to be poor form (among humans) to show up in someone's house uninvited...

I thought that was an astute observation!

Oh well...how about 'well put fantasy' then?

[toothdust]

I already see our differences worldwide as trivial. Too bad that is not the norm, yet.

[Neverfly]

You know timb, I think your personality is scarily similar to your avatar's.

Joking aside, I particularly liked this bit:
I thought that was an astute observation!

Oh well...how about 'well put fantasy' then?

A well put fantasy is still a fantasy.
Lotta maybes in there.

I already see our differences worldwide as trivial. Too bad that is not the norm, yet.

Maybe it's a matter of looking from your own vantage point.

[Ara Pacis]

Why fantasy?

For the sake of responding to the OP's proposed scenario, a number of assumptions must be made: aliens exist, aliens are capable of contacting us, aliens are capable of determining who to contact at the scale of economic, social, or occupational class. While in the process of determining who they would contact, we must speculate and consider what possible motives would exist for the purposes of choosing between classes of humans. In order to consider motives, we must make some speculations as to what informs the alien's imperatives, and in so doing we should consider all known imperatives for which we have a real-world referant or at least an informed speculation based on known science. Three broad categories would be physical necessity, logical reasoning and illogical reasoning. Religion falls into those categories, and I chose to list it as one potential imperative as a counterpoint to common statements about the faith of humans on earth.

With regard to an alien's imperatives in making contact, those choices will either be informed or uninformed. At the extremes of that spectrum is no previous contact and lots of previous contact with other species, and I chose to use the extremes in order to create contrast in two scenarios. By employing the Copernican Principle to the scenarios (which is implicit in the OP as the aliens are capable of contact and able to understand our organization enough to distinguish human classes at a high resolution) we can illustrate that as the number of potential alien civilizations increase, the variety of customs will increase, and the chances of an alien civilization having one or more similar customs to human civilizations will also increase. While the distribution curve of any particular custom may not be predictable in alien civilizations, the knowledge that such customs exist would seem to become increasingly logical as the number of alien civilizations increase, even if the human-like custom is an outlier. Thus, an alien civilization with lots of first contact experience, that is also capable of communication with humans and is competent enough to discern our organization may well be capable of deferring that decision until the projected outcome is optimal for both species.

[cosmocrazy]

I agree with you Ara Pacis, on most points.
Turn the scenario around and put us, as humans in the driving seat... Say we are now in the future, have discovered a technological capable alien world. But we find this world divided similar to how ours is now. Potentially we have technology that would dramatically enhance theirs but could also be used to destroy them if it was mis-used. At what point would we consider it safe to make first contact? or would we sit back and watch the evolution of their technology and civilization? what if they become technologically advanced enough to pose a threat but still unable to unite as one race with global peace? would we intervene to try and help them, even if its just to ensure our own survival?

[KaiYeves]

I for one am certain that faced with a truly alien intelligence weŽd seem identical to one another.

I agree wholeheartedly.

[Ara Pacis]

I agree with you Ara Pacis, on most points.
Turn the scenario around and put us, as humans in the driving seat... Say we are now in the future, have discovered a technological capable alien world. But we find this world divided similar to how ours is now. Potentially we have technology that would dramatically enhance theirs but could also be used to destroy them if it was mis-used. At what point would we consider it safe to make first contact? or would we sit back and watch the evolution of their technology and civilization? what if they become technologically advanced enough to pose a threat but still unable to unite as one race with global peace? would we intervene to try and help them, even if its just to ensure our own survival?

Well, that requires a judgement call, and I would say that we should watch them and study them as remotely as possible for a long while before we can be sure what would happen to them upon contact. If we've made contact or been contacted by other alien species they we'd have some experience from which to extrapolate potential problems. If this is the first time for us, then we'll be winging it. You'd want to watch them for a long while to make sure that if they are lower-tech that it is due to ignorance of higher tech and not due to a refusal to employ obvious high-tech due to some other motive. Take the Stargate Atlantis idea of the Genii, that pretend to be low-tech farmers but also have machine guns and nuclear bombs in deep bunkers.

I would wait until we had a good idea that they would respond favorably, then stand back and send a basic message over simple methods, like an attention getting numeric pulse code using radio, that looks like it comes from a long distance. Then we can evaluate their reactions to basic knowledge that they are not alone and that another race exists to whom they may desire contact. After they respond, we might generate a common language and understanding, and then I would suggest letting them in on the secret that we've been closer for a while and watching, but didn't land in their back yard out of respect, once we've established the concept of respect and protocol. After all, I don't think it's a good idea to jump out and say boo at them, even if we have the best intentions.

[Vultur]

I tend to think that most technological aliens would be indifferent or hostile to us (which is one reason I am glad we're not doing much "active" SETI), but that's based on very little...

[cosmocrazy]

I would wait until we had a good idea that they would respond favorably, then stand back and send a basic message over simple methods, like an attention getting numeric pulse code using radio, that looks like it comes from a long distance. Then we can evaluate their reactions to basic knowledge that they are not alone and that another race exists to whom they may desire contact. After they respond, we might generate a common language and understanding, and then I would suggest letting them in on the secret that we've been closer for a while and watching, but didn't land in their back yard out of respect, once we've established the concept of respect and protocol. After all, I don't think it's a good idea to jump out and say boo at them, even if we have the best intentions.

I agree and think this is the best most cautious action to take. My reasoning behind the OP was to consider exactly this scenario for how the aliens would react towards us.
I personally think that if an advanced peaceful alien civilization is out there and knows about us then they may come to this conclusion.. that we are simply not ready to be contacted yet.

On the other hand i agree, that we need to be cautious about giving away our existence just in case we become easy prey.

[Neverfly]

I think if humanity discovered another sentient species, humanity would make contact.
One way or another.
In spite of any debates as to whether or not we should.

Caution- is a cute approach- it just is not an approach that ever succeeds in getting much done.

[Ara Pacis]

I agree and think this is the best most cautious action to take. My reasoning behind the OP was to consider exactly this scenario for how the aliens would react towards us.
I personally think that if an advanced peaceful alien civilization is out there and knows about us then they may come to this conclusion.. that we are simply not ready to be contacted yet.

On the other hand i agree, that we need to be cautious about giving away our existence just in case we become easy prey.

I think the most basic threat assessment should take into context the proliferation of life in the universe. If life is rare because habital conditions are rare (Rare Earth hypothesis) then they might be more prone to look at us as competitors if they happen to come across us. Even if they find humanity to be a rare and interesting species, a cost-benefit analysis might still make us a threat. This may depend on whether or not interstellar travel is more or less expensive than ecopoiesis, and whether there are even candidates for ecopoiesis nearer to the alien's homeworld and transit route.

[Neverfly]

We ARE a threat.
So, Note To All Monitoring Aliens:

Be Really Nice To Us.

Wave hello, offer us tips on advancing technology and maybe trade some Uranium from Uranus for several barrels of Saffron and then be on your way.

'Cuz if you tick us off we will show you how effective a fast hand and a bowie can be against your stupid ray guns.